Thursday, September 30, 2010

Yes, the Royal Society, the oldest scientific organization in the world, took a teensy step back from its CAGW doom-mongering, sort of admitting (with tons of wiggle room) that there might be some uncertainty about the methods and conclusions of warmistas.

Well, it's something; much commentary about what that something might or might not be in the thread. I just wanted to highlight a comment from "Kate," who for some reason links to a piece out of China:

Pig walks on two legs

A pig which can walk and do handstands (hoof-stands?) on two legs has become a local celebrity in China. . . .

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

KC Johnson of the redoubtable but semi-dormant Durham in Wonderland blog weighs in at Minding the Campus on the (unanimous) refusal of trustees at the University of Illinois (Chi) to grant incompetent terrorist turned commie educrat Bill Ayers emeritus status:

The predictable voices have sprung to Ayers' defense. Cary Nelson conceded that the Trustees have the power to deny emeritus status, but nonetheless suggested that Kennedy should have recused himself. (Nelson didn't say if all the other trustees who voted against Ayers should have recused themselves as well.). . . .

[T]he best comparison to the Ayers case is that of disgraced ex-Colorado professor Ward Churchill. After Churchill's "little Eichmanns" comment, the university launched an inquiry into his scholarship, and discovered myriad instances of dubious (or much worse) academic behavior. The university pointed to the findings of this inquiry to fire Churchill. I disagreed at the time with the decision to terminate Churchill, since it seemed to me impossible to separate the decision to investigate his academic misconduct from his offensive essays; and also because Colorado, which hired Churchill under a "diversity" hiring initiative that seemed tailored to hire underqualified faculty with extremist views, knew or should have known what it was getting when it hired Churchill.

Never agreed with KC (or many others) on that one, but, onward:

The same applies to Ayers. The University of Illinois knew or should have known what it was getting when it hired Ayers---and yet the Trustees signed off on his hire, and whatever promotions or pay increases he received while employed at the university. It seems a little late in the game to be ruling his previous actions disqualifying for appointment.

Tough. Then KC (who's always been very careful to identify himself as a liberal, though how he compartmentalizes this from the behavior of the "liberal" Duke faculty during the LAX scandal is beyond me) goes into his usual vague (when he's off the LAX case) condemnation of the leftist garbage being taught in schools of education, heavily influenced by Billy:

The real Ayers scandal isn't his (incidental and basically irrelevant) connection to then-state Sen. Barack Obama. Or whether or not Ayers should receive emeritus status at Illinois-Chicago. It's that, as Inside Higher Ed's Scott Jaschik correctly points out, Ayers' "numerous books and articles" have earned him considerable respect among education scholars." If Chairman Kennedy wants to perform a lasting service to his institution, he and his colleagues should do more to ensure that actual merit---rather than politically correct pablum of the type that characterized Ayers' career---serves as a precursor for employment in UIC's Education program. Ayers' career is done. But the harm that Ayers' approach has done to American schoolchildren will continue, without more aggressive oversight by boards of trustees around the country.

Fine, fine. Let slide the claim that Ayers' connection to Obama is irrelevant. Weirder, note how Johnson calls Ayers' theories and teaching to ed students "pablum," while not spelling out what they are: an attempt to indoctrinate future teachers in brainwashing children into a belief in the nugatory concept of "social justice," and (don't believe I'm overstating it) the need for revolution. Now, that he couches it in pablum ("Vote Love!") I won't dispute.

Ayers hasn't changed his aims from his terrorist days; just his methods.

England's first Green MP, Caroline Lucas, thinks the military should take over the fight against AGW, the Independent says:

Responsibility for climate change should be transferred to the Ministry of Defence as the single most important threat facing the nation, the Green MP Caroline Lucas said yesterday. Only if global warming is classified as an issue of "national survival", like a military threat, will it be treated with the urgency it now needs, she told the Sustainable Planet conference in Lyon.

What are they going to do? Bayonet it? The Independent is goofier on global warming (if that's possible) than the Guardian, but even they sound a little skeptical in the first sentence of the next graf:

Ms Lucas insisted that she was making an important political point. In wartime, politicians and generals did not sit around "consulting focus groups and special interests" before deciding how to respond to a military invasion, she said. . . .

She's also hot for much deeper cuts in "carbon emissions" than the EU is going to propose in Cancun later this year (20 percent by 2020 is "not anything like enough."), and she called for "curbs" on "consumption-boosting advertising."

Poked around the Greens' site a little. Hoo, boy. Sort of o/t, but every once in a while a commenter over at WUWT (and this, by the way, is via commenter RichieP there), will lament that too many make AGW a left/right issue, when it's about the science, dammit. Here's the last section of Lucas' biopage

An activist and campaigner

Caroline is an acknowledged expert on climate change, international trade and peace issues [and with that degree in English Lit, she should be].

She has served as a Vice President of the RSPCA, the Stop the War Coalition, Campaign Against Climate Change and Environmental Protection UK (formerly National Society for Clean Air), as well as a member of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament National Council and a Director of the International Forum on Globalization.

The think-tanks Protect the Local, Globally and Centre for a Social Europe have Caroline as an Advisory Board Member, as does the Radiation Research Trust, the Transitions Towns Network and the Council of the Constitution Unit.

Caroline is a patron of Action for UN Renewal, the Venezuela Information Centre, Havant Literary Festival and Lifecycle UK and a matron of the Women’s Environmental Network.

CND; Centre for a Social Europe; Venezuela Information Centre. In other words, being a rabid greenie almost always comes with a constellation of other left idiocies.

Update: Here's a report (by, allegedly, a reporter) on the Sustainable Planet Forum (sponsored in part by the Independent!).

Saturday, September 25, 2010

Remember how Benjie told me he'd "shoot me a copy" to review before it came out?

Yeah, me neither. If he had, I think I would have increased his sales by 3000 percent.

Benjie, in case anyone's forgotten, has deleted two blogs out of fear of what his slanderous style might reap.

Update: Former Rocky Mountain News editorial gink Linda Seebach wrote a few days ago to tell me Whitmer's Roman a jerk had sunk to about 500,000 on Amazon's Top 100. I just looked today (10/7/10) and it was at 677, 730. Amazon claims to rate "over 700,000" books, so Whitmer's about to drop off the end of the earth. Benjie, if you'd sent me a copy as you promised, I swear I'd have described it as "a wild roller-coaster ride," maybe even a "searing indictment," but no, you had to pussy out, as you always do. Hey, planning on being arrested for Columbus Day this year?

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Of Norman Rockwell paintings at the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s newish exhibit, “Telling Stories: Norman Rockwell from the Collections of George Lucas and Steven Spielberg." F'n Bobbsey Twins.

I'm ambivalent about ol' Normy. Ryan Cole, who wrote the City Journal piece that links to the exhibit's website, mounts the standard conservative defense of Rockwell over the last however-many years--the elites hate him because he loved America.

Fine, fine. I agree up to a point. On the other hand, check out this painting:

This is supposed to be Lindbergh after his x-Atlantic flight. It doesn't look like him at all. In fact, he looks like one of those idealized Na--never mind. And why does he have a horse concealed in each cheek?

Update: Radio broadcast of Lindbergh's arrival in DC after his flight. "A darn nice boy." .

Pretty weak batch, he said in a blatant attempt to draw the reader in:

At 6 p.m. Sept. 1, Lone Tree Police responded to a report of a theft at California Pizza Kitchen, 8343 Park Meadows Center Drive, Lone Tree. A woman said someone stole her laptop computer while she ate dinner with her family. The woman said the laptop was in a bag on the floor, and added the restaurant service was horrible.

Man mysteriously "Just Married." At 4:25 a.m. May 20, Castle Rock Police were dispatched to a home on the 800 block of Sunset Drive, Castle Rock, on a report of criminal mischief. A 57-year-old man told officers someone wrote in white shoe polish "Just Married" on the side of his 1992 Dodge Caravan. Also, a few weeks ago, someone took the van's emblem.

Man befouls property. Officers cited a man for "befouling property" on Aug. 12 after he was seen urinating in public. Police spotted the man at about 11:51 a.m. near a fence on the 500 block of South Memphis Way. A report indicated he was "snug against the fence and he had his hands down near the front zipper of his shorts." The man apologized for the incident, saying he was headed down to the police department to update his registry as a sex offender.

Woman storms out of manicure session. Police are looking for a female suspect who walked out of a pedicure and manicure without paying. The incident occurred at about 2:38 p.m. June 25 at Daisy Nails, 15270 E. Sixth Ave., Aurora. The customer became upset midway through the manicure, claiming employees commented on her "skin being black." She took off in a Honda Accord without paying the tab, estimated at about $40

Controversial banner stolen. A large banner advertising a new location for a racy coffee shop was reported stolen June 25. The owner of Perky Cups said the 10x20-foot banner at 15258 E. Hampden Ave. was being used to advertise a new location for the business, where scantily-clad female baristas serve coffee. The sign cost about $1,200 and $250 to install, according to the report.

Woman scammed for $3,000. An Aurora woman was swindled for nearly $3,000 from a man claiming to be her nephew. The woman, who lives on the 11200 block of East Baltic Place, called police after she became suspicious of a phone call she received June 16. A man called her home, claimed he was her nephew in Spain and asked for $3,000 to help pay for an accident. She wired the money over. Police contacted Western Union and attempted to stop the transaction, but it was too late. Incidentally, the woman's husband had passed away earlier that morning.

Crackers stolen from car. An Aurora woman filed a theft report March 16 after someone broke into her car. She said her Oldsmobile Alero was broken into at about 8 a.m. while it was parked near her apartment on the 19100 block of East Arkansas Drive. The only thing missing was a plastic bag with a few goldfish crackers.

Gilbert died last September at 77, and because I have no more relatives living in Lincoln, IL, I just found out about it by searching his name. I'd lost contact with him over the years.

Gilbert worked for Western Union all his life, often sitting in tiny gyms, telegraphing the action in Illinois high school basketball games to newspapers around the state. A vanished time.

Gil was also the first hillbilly homo I ever met. My mother, being something of a fag hag, tended to have parties with lots of gay folks. Among others, there was the touring company actor with the bad hair plugs ("Les Miserables" was his greatest success); the flower and party arranger guy with the cruddy toupee; the priest who was in love with my father--and Gil, the hillbilly homo.

Gil grew up in Creal Springs, IL, way down near Shawnee National Forest. It's about as close to the Ozarks as you can get in Illinois.

None of the urbane homos in town liked Gil. He was tiny, he was loud, he was a drunk, he had a southern accent, and he cried all the time. Not good for the brand, as it were.

But he was my friend. When I was a late teenager I'd end up over at his place, usually on Sunday afternoons, where we'd drink beer, maybe barbeque, smoke cigs, watch Julia Child and listen to Ain't Misbehavin', his all-time fave album, sometimes all at the same time.

Occasionally he'd try to ravish me, but never in a boorish way. All it ever took was a polite thanks, but no thanks, and he'd quit.

Long after he retired Gil moved back to Creal Springs. I visited him there once, maybe on the way to a backpacking trip or something. Most of the people in town were his relatives, one way or another. Brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, cousins, half-cousins, cousins of cousins--and all of them crackers.

They loved him to death. In fact, Gil was sort of the matriarch of the clan. Might have had something to do with the fact that he was the only person in town to have ever held a job.

I keed, but only a little.

Gil also did a pretty good Julia Child impression: "Oh no! I've splashed clarified butter on my face! Well, let's just empty the blisters into the pot, shall we?"

Sunday, September 19, 2010

My next-door neighbor rescued a semi-feral cat let loose by another neighbor who was foreclosed on a couple of years ago.

Last year the non-foreclosed neighbor moved to the 'burbs, and asked me to take care of the cat until his fambly was in a position to take her back ("Tots" is the kitteh's name).

I did, keeping Tots outside, of course. But I kept her food and water dishes supplied, and a couple of times inveigled her close enough that I was almost able to pet her. She's a few years old now, and weighs about seven pounds. Tiny cat.

So the other day 'burb neighbor finally came by to collect Tots. He had a cat carrier and everything. He got her within grabbing distance, duly grabbed, and tried to shove her in the carrier. This was the result:

Blood! Blood! And not kitteh blood neither. . .

Not enough?

More blood! Even one of those big square band-aids wasn't enough; I had to go for the gauze and tape to seal the leak. Poor guy was in shock.

Friday, September 17, 2010

Global Distributive Justice: The Potential for a Feminist Analysis of International Tax Revenue Allocation

This article has a modest aim—to engage feminists and progressive international tax scholars in a shared dialogue about the importance of protecting and enhancing the state's revenue-raising and international revenue distribution roles. To this end, the article reviews some of the feminist and critical race scholarship that might assist international tax scholars and policy makers concerned with issues of international revenue distribution; explains the role of tax treaties in allocating tax revenues between nations; applies a feminist analysis to the problem of this international revenue allocation project; and offers some tentative thoughts about a feminist approach to allocating a greater portion of international tax revenues to low-income countries.

One more, this from the journal Feminist Formations (formerly the NWSA--National Women's Studies Association--Journal).

Unmirroring Pedagogies: Teaching with Intersectional and Transnational Methods in the Women and Gender Studies Classroom

As the U.S. academy increasingly markets "the global" and "diversity" for undergraduate student consumption, feminists face new challenges with respect to the decolonizing goals of teaching. Analyzing race, gender, and culture intersections that inform epistemological desires in the Women and Gender Studies classroom, this article examines the potential of a "pedagogy of unmirroring" to engage students in a decolonizing process of learning that facilitates intersectional and transnational feminist methods. The analysis draws from personal teaching experiences to argue that the languages of postcolonial feminist studies can be applied to a politics of knowledge in the classroom by rendering self–other relations of empire visible to the "mirror" of student perceptions in ways that help them confront epistemological desires rooted in imperialist assumptions.

Thursday, September 16, 2010

Hilarious (that's a synonym for "psychotic," isn't it?) article in the Guardian today on how we can reduce consumption to save the planet while not succumbing to the eco-fascists. The author, Micah White, starts, as usual with eco-doomcluckers, on an upbeat:

It is time to acknowledge that mainstream environmentalism has failed to prevent climate catastrophe. Its refusal to call for an immediate consumption reduction has backfired and its demise has opened the way for a wave of fascist environmentalists who reject democratic freedom.

One well-known example of the authoritarian turn in environmentalism is James Lovelock, the first scientist to discover the presence of ozone-depleting chlorofluorocarbons in the atmosphere. Earlier this year he told the Guardian that democracies are incapable of adequately addressing climate change. "I have a feeling," Lovelock said, "that climate change may be an issue as severe as a war. It may be necessary to put democracy on hold for a while." . . .

Humanity can avert climate catastrophe without accepting ecological tyranny. However, this will take an immediate, drastic reduction of our consumption. This would however requires the trust that the majority of people would voluntarily reduce their standard of living once the forces that induce consumerism are overcome.

Well (rolling up hemp sleeves), let's get to it!

The future of environmentalism is in liberating humanity from the compulsion to consume. Rampant, earth-destroying consumption is the norm in the west largely because our imaginations are pillaged by any corporation with an advertising budget. From birth, we are assaulted by thousands of commercial messages each day whose single mantra is "buy". Silencing this refrain is the revolutionary alternative to ecological fascism. It is a revolution which is already budding and is marked by three synergetic campaigns: the criminalisation of advertising, the revocation of corporate power and the downshifting of the global economy.

Authoritarian environmentalists fail to imagine a world without advertising, so they dream of putting democracy "on hold". . . But there is no need to suspend democracy if it is returned to the people. Democratic, anti-fascist environmentalism means marshalling the strength of humanity to suppress corporations. Only by silencing the consumerist forces will both climate catastrophe and ecological tyranny be averted. Yes, western consumption will be substantially reduced. But it will be done voluntarily and joyously.

Yeah, sure.

Update: Loved Vance Packard as a kid (me, not Vance). But on further review, what a hack.

The State Board of Health rejected a petition Wednesday to add Tourette's syndrome to the list of conditions for which patients can obtain medical marijuana.

It was the first time in the 10-year history of Colorado's medical-marijuana law that a petition to add a new condition had made it through the state health department's review process and come before the board. The decision suggested that the board will require a high standard of proof before allowing new conditions to go on the list.

Board members expressed concerns over the health impacts of smoking marijuana, noted that there are other medications that could be used to treat Tourette's and concluded that the research wasn't evolved enough to show that marijuana would be useful in treating Tourette's. . . .

Neither the petitioner — whose name was redacted from a public copy of the petition because of state laws protecting the identity of medical-marijuana patients — nor any other medical-marijuana advocates testified at the hearing.

But Brian Vicente, executive director of the medical-marijuana patient advocacy group Sensible Colorado, called the review process a "sham."

"The (health department) has never approved any condition despite numerous petitions over the years, and I think it shows they are institutionally opposed to medical marijuana," he said.

Shit. The Post includes a handy-dandy list of illnesses approved for MM treatment. It's not long:

Cancer [Damn.]

Glaucoma [Billy Bob has a touch. Wonder if I could carve out his . . . nah.]

HIV/AIDS {Nope, I claim]

Cachexia (a wasting syndrome) [Don't think they mean the kind of wasted I've been so, so many times over the years.]

Severe pain [I bent my wookie the other day.]

Severe nausea [Saw Obama's last press conference.]

Seizures, "including those that are characteristic of epilepsy" [The D-a-W is always ramming this big wooden spoon down my throat to keep me from swallowing my tongue, she says.]

Persistent muscle spasms, "including those that are characteristic of multiple sclerosis" [People say I walk funny.}

It's all such a sham. Just legalize it, you morons, and collect your vig. Bet it would erase Denver and the state's deficit instantly.

Update: The Post, ever cutting-edge, now has a "Marijuana News" section.

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

As if you needed reminding, today is the International Day for the Preservation of the Ozone Layer, as declared by the UN's Ozone Secretariat. As Tim Blair (via whom) notes, this year's theme is "Ozone layer protection: governance and compliance at their best."

Among the activities planned in various shitholes:

Tajikistan:

Meeting with schoolchildren and speech on “We protect the ozone layer for the life on the Earth”;

Speech and demonstration of video-film on the central republican TV channel on 16th September;

A special edition of “Phemphis”, an Environmental Newsletter, will be released with a special message from UNEP and the Minister of Housing and Environment Mr. Mohamed Aslam. One of the most significant events of this celebration will be the starting of the “Annual Ozone day bicycle Race” the purpose of this is to make people aware of the harmful gases the vehicles releases in to the atmosphere and create more understanding about the Ozone Layer. This event is scheduled for 25th September2010.

Damn bikes.

Croatia is allegedly preparing stuff:

The Ministry of Environmental Protection, Physical Planning and Construction is preparing the translation of the brochure „Vital Ozone Graphics 2.0 Climate Link - Resource kit for journalists" which will be published on Ministry's website;

In the cooperation with a well known Croatian illustrator, the Ministry is going to create the new concept design which will be used on all the promotional materials and jumbo posters which we are planning to produce;

The Ministry is planning to announce the information that the Montreal Protocol has been recognized around the world as the most effective multilateral environmental treaty ever implemented on its website to awaken the public about the success of the Montreal Protocol.

Sri Lanka is going all out, with, among other junk, a student oratory competition and the issuance of two commemorative stamps.

For some reason Yahoo Answers is running this "open question": "True or False: Ward Churchill was wrongfully fired from Colorado University." A couple of the (very few) responses: "who cares . . . he looks like a hippy freak [I get so tired of people mocking Wart's weight problem]"; and, "the truth is that he was wrongfully hired."

Sunday, September 12, 2010

Yes, I'm putting a gingerly toe (the big one) back into the septic tank of the blogosphere. And since nobody except poor Snaps ever listened to these things, this is a safe way to do so without attracting unwanted attention.

First up, Gunsmoke, starring that roly-poly little guy with the voice of doom, Bill Conrad. This season (the show's second) was sponsored by Post Toasties, "the heap good cornflakes." The commercials are cutely racist. This episode is called "Kick Me" (28 November 1953). Little scratchy, but good stuff.

Cavalcade of America: "Edgar Allan Poe" (26 February 1941). Surprisingly unbad, as far as it goes (i.e., not up to Poe dying in the gutter). Loooong lofty toned commercial for former (and soon to be again) warmonger Dupont at the end.

And a little sci-fi. X Minus 1 with a Robert Bloch story: "Almost Human" (August, 1955, I think).

Good piece by Vinnie Carroll on Denver mayor John Chickenpooper's charitable contributions to the far-left Chinook Fund, a non-profit that funnelled money to such civic-minded groups as Recreat!e 68 and the Transform Columbus Day Alliance. Vinnie:

My colleague Chuck Plunkett wrote a justifiably indignant blog post last week marveling at how a left-wing nonprofit that John Hickenlooper helped to establish and to which he still may be contributing (he won't say) supported groups dedicated to disrupting the Democratic National Convention as well as Denver's Columbus Day Parade.

Both, of course, forced authorities to spend a fortune on police protection.

Chickenpooper defended himself thusly, according to Carroll:

"I support the principle of giving some small amount of power to small organizations and letting them succeed or fail on what they think is best for the community," he recently told Post reporter Karen E. Crummy.

And if some groups happen to think what's "best for the community" is to trample on the First Amendment rights of others, that's just the way things sometimes work out when you're into adventurous philanthropy, right?

Please. Hickenlooper shouldn't insult our intelligence and we shouldn't insult his. The Chinook Fund's support for obnoxious groups such as Re-create 68 and Transform Columbus Day Alliance was no accident. Nor was its support, say, for the nearly equally obnoxious Colorado Campaign for Middle East Peace, ACORN and Denver Cop Watch. It was the inevitable result of Chinook's philosophy, which is to boost leftist schemes for social transformation. Some of the groups Chinook has supported are harmless. But the ones that aren't were hardly chosen by mistake.

No, they weren't. Like Carroll (and local conservative radio yakker Mike Rosen), I voted for C-pooper for mayor both times he ran--he's always been the best of a bad lot--but I won't be voting for him for gubner. How dumb do you have to be to give money to groups with the avowed goal of disrupting and damaging the town of which you're mayor?

Actually, I got nothin', except to propose an annual Ward Churchill lecture series on the evils of Amerikkka. AoS has the CNN coverage of that day, which I plan to wallow in like the retrograde fascist I am.

Update: In London, a certain segment of the populace uses the anniversary to let their feelings out for a tapdance.

School districts across the country are adding healthier food in their lunchrooms, but one of the nation's leaders in the trend is finding it's a tough campaign to sustain if kids don't eat the food.

I recommend the method Vincent Price used to feed a reluctant Robert Morley an organic meal in Theater of Blood:

Boulder Valley Schools in 2009 overhauled its food-services program to make it healthier fare, adding salad bars in every school, preparing hot lunches with natural ingredients and serving organic milk.

Sounds great, huh? Well, no, but even worse, something unexpected happened when the program began:

But the program, which was billed initially as revenue neutral, lost almost $700,000 in its first year despite a 25-cent increase in lunch prices — mostly because fewer kids signed up to eat than were expected.

The school district, with about 25,000 students, anticipated a 10 percent surge in participation with the new meals above the 26 percent participation but got only a 2 percent district-wide increase.

Participation varied from town to town.

For example, schools in Boulder and Louisville sold about 80,000 more meals during the year after they were made healthier, but students in Lafayette and Broomfield schools bought about 53,000 fewer. . . .

Goddamn hillbillies. What to do, what to do . . .

The district is now pushing a marketing campaign to sell at least 750 more meals a day — or at least 30 per school.

Lofty, lofty.

Schools will have daily tastings to preview the next day's meals, radio and print advertisements will tout the program and sports celebrities will make visits to cafeterias to urge kids to buy the lunches.

The district will pay for the campaign through grants and fundraising. . . .

"This is our great challenge," said Sylvia Tawse, a Boulder parent who founded a marketing firm that promotes the organic food industry. "I fully believe in the power of education. We have been feeding our kids into sickness. I think as (parents) start to absorb how bad it is for kids, I would hope they at least would say, 'I will buy lunch every other day.' "

Tawse was on the parent group that worked to bring Ann Cooper to Boulder as the director of nutrition services.

Cooper, known as the Renegade Lunch Lady [obviously a purely spontaneous nic], is a chef who once cooked for the Grateful Dead . . .

. . . led nutrition services for the Berkeley, Calif., school district [!] and is working with Whole Foods to donate salad bars to schools across the country.

Cooper, before being hired as Boulder's nutrition director, wrote a review of the district's lunchrooms, saying they resembled 7-Eleven stores and served "industrially grown and processed foods."

Schools now have salad bars, hot lunches are prepared from scratch with natural ingredients, students drink organic milk and flavored milk is banned. Foods with added trans fats, high fructose corn syrup, additives and dyes have been eliminated. Fruits, vegetables, and meals with whole grains are served daily.

Cooper sent an e-mail to parents last week, urging volunteers to help push the district's School Food Project.

"Change is hard for everybody," Cooper said. "But we'll get the numbers. We're in a time where people really care about what they eat."

Just the kind of doublethink you'd expect from a state-empowered lunch lady: People are aware as never before that their kids are bloated, disease-raddled hulks, but we still need to mandate and coerce to get them to act.